Octopus Cosy Credits 2026

cannugec5

I’ve received an email from ‘tj’ at Octopus informing me that ‘Cosy Credits are back for 2026’
I’ve not heard of Cosy Credits before and can’t find any associated small print terms and conditions. The email states:  “from 1st January to 31st December, if the average temperature falls below zero degrees in your area between 12pm and 6pm, we’ll apply a £1 Cosy credit to your account”. 

I’m intrigued. How do they define local area? We live in Scotland, in a small village in a valley that is often frozen when the nearest town 2 miles away isn’t. Between Christmas Eve just gone and New Year our temperature did not get above zero. But I’m guessing for some reason this incentive didn’t happen in 2025. I can’t find out when it DID happen as they said ‘bring it back’ it’s not new. 

They suggest it is to enable you to turn on the heating earlier during a cold spell, which is a nice touch. But if I don’t know what the average temperature over the 6 hours is in my designated area I’ll have no idea if I’m entitled to this credit or not ! 

Do others have experience of Cosy Credits from previous years? Was it of any practical use or just a marketing gimmick? 

debitcardmayhem

To be honest if it’s minus from noon til six pm chances are your heating was on from six am til noon .
On the whole though how often is it like that, certainly not in tropical Essex. I don’t envisage me getting it.

Qyburn

Never heard of that either, although I'm not on Cosy anyway. I expect it doesn't apply in Scotland.  Sub zero is just not unusual, one year it was below zero for the whole of February.  Admittedly we've not yet had a long cold spell this Winter, but days like this are pretty common ...

Alnat1

I can't find any info on this either. If it is based on the temperatures for the nearest town or city, is is unlikely many heat pump owners will benefit, as larger built up areas are generally several degrees warmer than the rural/suburban areas where most ASHP owners live.

Ildhund

I think the government's £25 Cold Weather Payments are awarded on the basis of temperature observations at 80-odd places, listed here. If this is good enough for HMG, it might be good enough for Octopus. I must say I don't think our weather has much in common with that at the station we come under. And I'm not at all sure that the list - last amended in 2009 - is still valid.

Alnat1

Ildhund said:

I think the government's £25 Cold Weather Payments are awarded on the basis of temperature observations at 80-odd places, listed here. If this is good enough for HMG, it might be good enough for Octopus. I must say I don't think our weather has much in common with that at the station we come under. And I'm not at all sure that the list - last amended in 2009 - is still valid.

Interesting, thank you. That would put me in the Sheffield area, though I live in Barnsley. As I lived in Sheffield for most of my life, I know the weather data is taken at Weston Park. Fairly close to the city centre but up a big hill and quite exposed so wouldn't be affected by city heat. Probably fairly similar temperatures to what I would get.

cannugec5

Ildhund said:

I think the government's £25 Cold Weather Payments are awarded on the basis of temperature observations at 80-odd places, listed here. If this is good enough for HMG, it might be good enough for Octopus. I must say I don't think our weather has much in common with that at the station we come under. And I'm not at all sure that the list - last amended in 2009 - is still valid.

I too have found this of great interest. So my appropriate weather station ( as of 2009) is in Machrihanish. That sounds right. It is about 60 miles away, but remote, rural and I suspect a very similar weather pattern to ourselves. 

I shall watch the Machrihanish weather forecast more closely from now and see how well it corresponds. 

Ildhund

cannugec5 said:
I shall watch the Machrihanish weather forecast more closely from now and see how well it corresponds. 

Pity the weather reports from coastal stations (each day at 00:48) give every conceivable observation other than temperature. You can see historical temperature data here, though: Machrihanish | Weather History & Climate | Meteostat

Spoonie_Turtle

Ildhund said:

I think the government's £25 Cold Weather Payments are awarded on the basis of temperature observations at 80-odd places, listed here. If this is good enough for HMG, it might be good enough for Octopus. I must say I don't think our weather has much in common with that at the station we come under. And I'm not at all sure that the list - last amended in 2009 - is still valid.

There's a checker for CWP eligibility; if you put your postcode in it will tell you which weather station is used.  Ours does not match what's on the 2009 list
https://coldweatherpayments.dwp.gov.uk/

debitcardmayhem

The CWP checker says my area was eligible from 1/1/26-7/1/26 but cosy hasnt kicked in for that week as far as I know.

cannugec5

I got my latest bill today and sure enough there is a £2 credit for “cosy tariff cold day credit”.

I’m not complaining. Just would have preferred to see it documented as to when the 2 cold days were!